Review: Leave Me by Gayle Forman

Title: Leave Me
Author: Gayle Forman
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Release date: September 7th 2010
Source: Edelweiss
Format: eARC

Rating: 3/5

Buy on: Amazon | B&N | BookDepository

International bestselling author Gayle Forman's trademark humor and insight abound in this masterful adult debut, showing us that sometimes you have to leave home in order to find it again.

For every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, for every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention--meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who's so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn't even realize she's had a heart attack.

Afterward, surprised to discover that her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her, Maribeth does the unthinkable: She packs a bag and leaves. But, as is so often the case, once we get to where we're going, we see our lives from a different perspective. Far from the demands of family and career and with the help of liberating new friendships, Maribeth is finally able to own up to secrets she has been keeping from those she loves and from herself.

With big-hearted characters who stumble and trip, grow and forgive, Leave Me is about facing our fears. Gayle Forman, a dazzling observer of human nature, has written an irresistible novel that confronts the ambivalence of modern motherhood head-on. 

Leave Me is the first adult novel written by Gayle Forman and before reading this novel I´ve only had read the If I Stay duology, so I must say I had high expectations for this book because Where She Went is one of my favorites.

Maribeth Klein is a 44-year-old working mother of 4 years old twins, wife and she works in a celebrity magazine, so she´s a busy woman, so when she has a heart attack she initially thinks that is an indigestion therefore she doesn´t give much importance, until she ends at the hospital and when discharged a week later, she returns home with her family, and there she doesn´t receive the support that she´s expecting, because as mother his convalescence is too short and her family expect her to return to be the same in a short time. So Maribeth in a moment of despair, she makes her suitcase, withdraw money from the bank and flees to another city, initially she thinks the city she chose was unimportant, but eventually she realizes that in addition to needing time to heal physically, she also need time to heal mentally and emotionally as there are things in her past that she needs to find an answer, so she needs that time apart from family to heal completely.

Maribeth is a complex and imperfect woman (as most people), she loves her children and husband, but reaches her breaking point and leaves them with the idea of ​​returning once she is well. In her new city she uses an alias and makes new friends there who will help her in different ways to heal, to return to be herself and come to an understanding with her problems.

The novel uses flashbacks to see the Maribeth´s relationship with her husband, her best friend and her mother.

Leave Me is a contemporary novel about a working mother and wife trying to heal physically, but also about her abandonment issues even tough she denies them. I did enjoyed this novel.